Broken Promises
John Key gave New Zealanders a pledge he would not privatise state assets during his first term of Government. He also pledged he would investigate only opening up the ACC Work Account.
Just a year down the track, those promises are in tatters. National is now investigating privatising all ACC accounts and Nick Smith says privatisation will be enacted as soon as the investigations are completed in June.
The Government is attempting to justify these broken promises by manufacturing a crisis. It claims ACC is insolvent when it has over $11 billion dollars of reserves and last year collected $1 billion more in levies than it spent on claims.
There is no justification for New Zealand's world-leading publicly-owned ACC scheme being sold off to private companies. Labour will fight privatisation from which big Aussie insurance companies will make 100s of millions of dollars in profits but Kiwis will as a result be forced to pay more to get less.
Rodney Hide's plan to privatise water infrastructure now run by councils raises further serious questions. New Zealanders oppose the privatisation of water because, just like ACC, they recognise they will end up paying more for this vital service.
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Government must stop the motorbike rort
On Saturday I will be attending the Ulysses motorcycle club’s National Ride-in Day from 11am at the TelstraClear Pacific Centre, Manukau, to protest at the Government’s unfair plans to massively increase ACC levies for bikers.
The Government is proposing trebling the levy to more than $700 for bikes over 600cc – the biggest ever increase in ACC levies -- and that is unacceptable, it's outrageous, and it's not warranted.
The clear message from the Government is that it wants motorbikes priced off the road. It ignores the fact that bikers use less petrol, create less pollution, and cause less congestion.
It ignores the fact, too, that most accidents involving motorbikes are caused by cars.
Nick Smith wants to introduce a user pays scheme – but that plays one sector of New Zealanders off against another.
If ACC was user pays, levies would be charged on sports clubs and schools because of the risk of playing sport, elderly people who have more falls because of frailty would be charged for growing old, cyclists would pay huge levies because of the high cost of their accidents, also often not their own fault, and according to Stats NZ, men would be charged much more than women.
None of that makes sense. Labour will strongly oppose the huge increases in costs for ACC which the government is seeking to impose on Kiwis.
Political attack on ACC makes no sense
The National Government is also planning to stop funding programmes such as a falls prevention programme which has been shown to keep elderly people out of hospital so that for every $1 invested taxpayers are saved $2.
Cost cutting which costs more than it saves shows a total lack of commonsense.
Privatisation will undermine the accident prevention campaigns, which have cut accident rates significantly since 2005.
Mike Moore book launch
Recently I spoke at the launch of a new book by former Labour leader, Mike Moore. It’s called Saving Globalization.
It is impressive in the scope of what it covers – the rise of China and India and developments in the Islamic world; and a history of the evolution of open economies, democracy and the rule of law.
It looks at the prerequisites for freedom and democracy – good governance, openness, choice, a strong civil society. It highlights the importance of ensuring social mobility.
It also addresses key issues around change, the role of the US and global warming.
It is optimistic about progress over recent decades that have seen 100s of millions of people lifted out of poverty and autocratic regimes in Eastern Europe, Latin America and elsewhere being replaced by democracies.
I hope his book is widely read.
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